Author's Note: Somebody came up with the most awesome thing I've heard in a while. Vikito! Which, of course, is a combination of Violet and Akito used to signify their possible pairing. Things are going to start shaking up in the next couple of chapters, and Violet's going to have some big things to deal with. Until then, before things get more complicated, here is another chapter featuring none other than Vikito!
The hand fishing contest was originally and traditionally a Bluebell festival. And it still was predominately a Bluebell festival. People from Konohana were now permitted to participate, though, just like residents of Bluebell were welcome to join in on the angling contest if they wanted to. Willow and Makoto were actually both difficult to defeat when it came to this particular contest. Willow had always been very in tune with the mountain as the daughter of the Oracle. As for Makoto, he had an innate ability to be quiet enough not to alarm the fish and he had hands so fast that the fish got snatched up before bystanders could even see him move.
Those two were the reason why I did some hardcore training in the days leading up to the contest. My mother eventually told me to stop bringing fish back to the house because we had so many. Even my dad said enough was enough, and he was normally eager to get fresh fish for the cats. I offered some to Cheryl, but she ended up putting her foot down, too, because their pond was close to being overstocked. Therefore, many fish were allowed to swim another day thanks to them. Besides, the better fish were the ones in the deeper water anyway. Continuing to catch the small fry was essentially a waste.
So there I was, my shoes abandoned where it was nice and dry as I stood in the water and concentrated on being fast, quiet, and completely in tune with nature. I was basically trying to be the ultimate combination of Willow and Makoto. I was snatching up fish left and right before letting them go and I was so focused that I wasn't immediately aware when I wasn't alone anymore.
I caught a fish, but it somehow managed to squirm its way out of my grasp and hit the water with a splash. I watched as it swam away as fast as its fins could take it.
"Slippery little guy," I mumbled with a little smile as it disappeared from my view.
"It seems that one got away from you. Can't catch them all, I suppose."
"Aaah!" I exclaimed as I spun around and saw Akito sitting right next to my shoes. My eyes only landed on him for a total of two seconds because I slipped on something in the water and started falling back. I flailed my arms around as if that was going to somehow keep me up and before I knew it, I hit the water.
"Violet! Are you okay?" I heard Akito say before I saw him standing above me. I got a heavy dose of deja vu right then. I was suddenly thirteen all over again as I gazed up at him from where I was, flat on my back. His golden eyes were twinkling with his amusement, auburn hair was framing his face, and I suddenly felt like I was falling in love with him all over again even though I had made myself a promise that day I first saw him again in Georgia's shop that I wouldn't let my old feelings completely resurface. I just broke that promise.
"I'm fine," I mumbled, trying to tell my heart not to feel the things it was insisting on feeling. That heart of mine was such a traitorous thing taking up residence in my chest. Too bad I couldn't evict it. "My pain is more emotional than physical." It was an honest answer that I certainly didn't plan on elaborating so I hoped he didn't do that thing where he insisted upon me telling him something.
"Are you sure? You easily could have hit your head on a rock or something. Maybe I should take you to Hiro or Ayame. . ."
"I'm fine, really," I insisted, trying and failing to bury my feelings again.
"Vi, you're the clumsiest person I know," he told me and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the truth.
"I know, I know," I said with a sigh. "You know my mom used to call me Clara Klutz back in the day." Clara was my middle name and one day when the sleeve of my shirt somehow got caught on a doorknob as I was walking by and pulled me back, my mom called me that for the first time. She thought it was amusing, especially since she was clumsy once upon a time herself She managed to grow out of it, though. Oftentimes, I felt like I still hadn't. . .especially, not when I was around Akito.
"Need help?" he asked, offering me his hand.
I looked from his hand to his eyes and my heart fluttered unevenly. It wasn't full-on boom-clap, but it was enough of a reaction. I had to look away from him. "Thanks, but no. I think I'll stay down here and ponder my clumsiness and think about what I could do to make myself more graceful. You go ahead and go about your day. I'll see you later."
I was focusing on a tree nearby, waiting for him to leave when I suddenly heard a splashing noise and had to look over. "Akito, what are you doing?" I asked as I watched him lower himself down until he was sitting in the water before he laid back right next to me.
"Well, if you won't let me help you up then the only solution I could think of was to join you."
"Ki, you're all wet now," I pointed out, slightly exasperated. He was supposed to be leaving, not doing something even more endearing.
"So are you. Besides, it's summer. It's hot. I needed a little cool down."
"When people want a cool down they sit in front of a fan. Or better yet, they go out for ice cream."
"Are you inviting me out for ice cream?"
"W-What?!" I sputtered. Surely I had water in my ears. Surely I'd heard him wrong. "I said no such thing."
He was quiet for a few seconds before he hit me with "So you don't want ice cream? Violet, you always want ice cream, even in winter."
"I never said I didn't want ice cream. I just. . ."
"Great," he said as he jumped back up onto his feet in one fluid motion and held his hand back out so quickly my mind didn't have time to process it properly. "Lets get ice cream. I have some in my freezer if you don't want to go out wet like that."
We were much closer to Konohana than Bluebell so changing my clothes was out of the question. "Alright," I haltingly agreed as I took his hand and let him help me up.
"Besides, if you come over that will give you a chance to visit Mini Delilah."
The previous day had been Akito's birthday. To mark the occasion, I'd carved a horse figurine out of wood, similar to the big statue Kana had in the corner of the front room of his shop. This one, however, was miniature and fashioned into the exact likeness of Delilah. I even painted it. When I handed her over to Akito, I'd called her 'Mini Delilah.'
"What? Does Mini Delilah miss me already? It's only been a day," I joked as I started walking. Akito matched my pace.
"She's been sitting on the shelf behind the counter of the shop, counting the minutes." About two seconds after saying that, he pulled his shirt over his head while walking and not even stumbling in the slightest.
"Oh, that's not fair," I groaned before I could stop myself, catching sight of the water making a trail from his hair to his back. It had been bad enough seeing him without his shirt before. This time there was water involved. I looked away as he turned to look in my direction.
"What's not fair?" he asked as he draped the shirt over his shoulder.
I coughed and chose my words carefully. "It's not fair that. . .you can take your wet shirt off and I can't. I mean, technically I could, but as Oliver would tell me, that would be indecent."
"Is that so?"
We walked in silence for a couple of minutes before I started "So do you have. . ."
"Vanilla?" he cut in. "Would I have offered you ice cream if I didn't have vanilla?"
"Good point," I said with a laugh. "You're too smart to offer ice cream if it isn't vanilla."
When it came to an ice cream cone or ice cream in a bowl, I preferred plain ole vanilla to anything else. Milkshakes were a whole different story, though.
Soon enough, I was sitting at the table in the back area of his father's shop with a bowl of vanilla ice cream before me. Akito opted for chocolate instead and took the seat across from me. My clothes had dried considerably on the walk to Konohana, but they had still been wet enough for Akito to insist I change into some clothes his sister had left there while my clothes were drying. And while the t shirt and shorts were a little too small, wearing them was better than wearing damp clothes. My hair was piled on top of my head so I wouldn't have to deal with any damp strands touching my neck.
Although Akito was in Bluebell every day, he was technically staying at the Konohana shop since he wanted his own space. And since his father was more busy than usual with keeping Georgia's spirits up, it was good to have somebody constantly keeping their eye on the Konohana shop. I sat at the kitchen table with Akito for the longest time, having our long overdue talk we needed to catch up.
"So there I was, sitting at the restaurant. The waitress had just walked away with our orders when I somehow managed to knock my glass of soda over. And I'm telling you, it was like the entire ordeal went in slow motion. I saw the glass slowly flying off the table. I reached toward it while calling out 'Noooooo!' It hit the floor then bounced back up, all of the soda and ice splashing everywhere."
Akito did this thing where he half laughed and half groaned. "What about the guy?"
"Sam? Well, he didn't laugh or anything, but it was beyond embarrassing to have something like that happen on a date. We went on another date after that, one with no slow motion flying glasses, but that was it."
"Wow, Vi. Why'd you waste your time with that guy if he couldn't see the charm in your clumsiness?" he asked in such a way that I was very close to considering that he might be serious about his question.
"Just a glutton for punishment, I guess. Did I ever tell you how my. . .let me think. . .my great. . .great grandparents met?"
"No. This sounds like an interesting story already," he told me, stirring up his second helping of ice cream in the bowl. He liked to stir his ice cream until it was a little soupy and then he ate it.
"I like to think so. Grandma Raye had just moved to this place called Flower Bud Village. She left the city and wanted to start over as a farmer."
"This sounds familiar," he mentioned before promptly attacking his ice cream with gusto.
I paused to think about that and realized he was right. My mother had left the city once upon a time to start over as a farmer. And then I moved back from the city to be a farmer. "Perhaps this kind of thing runs in the family. . .Anyway, she chose to live right in the middle of town and that put her house across the road from the clinic, where a handsome doctor by the name of Alex happened to live."
"Great-great Grandpa?"
"Great-great Grandpa," I confirmed. "The land was unkempt so there were a lot of weeds growing all over the place. As she was contemplating all the work she'd have to do to fix it all up, she tripped over a weed."
"Let me guess. He caught her?" Akito asked, pushing his empty bowl aside and leaning forward.
"Oh no. She fell. She banged up her knee, too. I guess she was lucky that the doctor from across the road rushed over to help. He picked her up, carried her into the clinic, and patched her right up." I let out a wistful sigh then. I loved their story. They had a love worth aspiring to, just like my parents did.
"That was actually a beautiful story," Akito said softly. I looked up at him and saw him looking thoughtfully at the wall behind me. He had an unsettling look on his face, though, and it made me want to snap him out of whatever he was thinking about.
"So how about you?" I asked reluctantly, about 99.9 percent sure I didn't want to know the answer. "Have you had anybody special in your life lately?"
I was pretty sure I just made it worse because he looked kind of stricken right then. "Uh. . ."
"Whoa, whoa. I-I didn't mean to pry. If you don't want to tell me then that's alright. We should talk about something else instead." He was still looking like I'd slapped him across the face. "Then again, I think I'll just grab my clothes and go. I'm sorry if I said something that upset you."
As I stood up to give him his space, he grabbed my arm. "No, wait. It's. . .okay. Stay Vi. Please?"
I tugged down the shirt that had risen up when I'd jumped up from the table. I pulled at the shorts for good measure, too. Annabelle was truly a petite girl and that made my current outfit feel really awkward. I slowly sat back down and gave him a curious look. "You don't have to answer the question, okay?" I knew I shouldn't even have asked it in the first place. "Who do you think is going to win the hand fishing contest this year? Willow or Makoto?"
"Courtney." When I stared at him kind of blankly he continued. "Courtney was in my life recently."
"Courtney," I said, suddenly feeling jealous of a woman whose face I had never seen. I stomped those feelings down into the pit of my soul. "Okay."
He took a deep breath and started back talking when it became apparent that I wasn't going to press him for answers. "I dated Courtney for a year."
"How did you two meet?" I asked as casually as I could, deciding to ask questions after all since he seemed to want to talk about this.
"Work. I got a job at her father's company. She happened to be in his office when I came in the first day and we hit it off. Things were good for a while. It's just. . .I don't know. We wanted different things and that drove a wedge between us."
I put the last spoonful of ice cream in my mouth and then pushed my bowl over by his bowl. While part of me wanted to dig for more answers, another more dominant part of me felt like he'd revealed enough for one day and needed something else to think about.
"So. . .are you going back to the city you were living in?" I asked, realizing that I really wanted an answer to that question.
"Yes. No? Honestly, Violet, I'm not sure. I came back home to support my mom in her time of grief. I planned to go back, but now I'm don't know."
"Being back home feels that good, huh?"
"It really does."
"Ki, didn't you always plan on coming back, though? I mean, didn't you go to college for business so you could apply that knowledge to your family's shops?" I asked, pointing out his original intentions.
Akito put his elbow on the table and rested his cheek on the palm of his left hand. "You're right. I can't dispute that. That's what I planned, but I got offered this great job when I graduated and I took it and before I knew it, I got caught up in that life. And it's not a bad life. It's just. . .right now, I'm not sure what I should do. If I'm being perfectly honest, I want to stay home for good. But do I really want to give up all that I've built back in the city?"
I didn't say anything to that. Instead, I just smiled at him until he connected the dots in his head. "Who do I think I'm talking to, huh? You know all about what I'm talking about, don't you? What do you think, Vi?"
I considered all that he'd said very carefully before I dared to open my mouth. He was asking for my input and I didn't want to say the wrong thing. "You're right. I know all about this. But that was my own personal situation. I did what I felt was right for me. I left my job and do you know how difficult it is to get a decent job in the art world, especially fresh out of college? I left my friends, tons of opportunities. . .to work on a farm. My friend Marissa thought I was crazy. It made perfect sense to me, though. You think about what feels right to you. Think about what you think makes more sense to you personally. You and not anybody else. Then decide."
He let out a little sigh and then smiled brightly. "I always could count on you to be a voice of reason. Like that time I was thinking about shaving my hair. . ."
"That was insane!" I gushed then, remembering that with sudden absolute clarity. I reached across the table and grabbed onto the ponytail trailing over his shoulder. "Don't you ever cut it. Well, you can cut it. To your ears, maybe, at most. Just don't shave it off completely. On second thought, no, don't cut it."
He reached across the table and tugged on a lock of hair that had escaped my ponytail holder before idly twisting it around his finger. "Considering you've never had your hair shorter than the middle of your back your entire life, I'm pretty sure it's safe to say you're a bit biased."
"Perhaps."
We sat there for a little bit with my fingers in his ponytail and his finger toying with that lock of my hair, looking at each other with the strangest expression on our faces. When I realized my heart was doing that boom-clap thing, I let go of his hair and slowly leaned back, giving him time to separate himself from my hair as well before I put myself firmly back on my side of the table.
"I, uh. . ." I cleared my throat before finishing. "I'll wash the bowls and spoons, okay? I mean, it's the least I can do since you got yourself wet for me and then gave me ice cream. Then I'm going to head out to get some things done because I have these things I have to get accomplished today. You know, requests and stuff and I'd better get on it so. . ."
"Oh, um, yeah. Okay. I'm going to check on all the animals because that's kind of my job right now. My dad trusts me with it and I don't want to let him down, so. . ."
We both jumped up at the same time and scattered in different directions. I made quick work of washing those few dishes and then I recovered my clothes, which were now dry. I'm not sure I had ever gotten dressed so quickly in my entire life. Apparently Akito had finished with checking up on the animals inside the shop so I figured he'd be out in the pasture now. I left the shop and looked toward the pasture, but he wasn't there. I walked along the fence until I could get a good vantage point to see inside the barn. I could see him in there giving one of their horses a treat.
Knowing Akito, if he were to see me now he would insist on walking me home, right up to the front door. I suddenly felt like I needed some distance from him, though, so I hurried away before he could turn around and notice me there. I didn't stop until I shut the door of my bedroom behind me.
I immediately locked the door for good measure and sat down in a chair. I'd so carefully kept my feelings for him locked in the deepest recesses of my heart during the five years I'd spent away from Akito. On the mountain, they had somehow been unleashed. As I sat alone in my quiet bedroom, those feelings were flooding all around me.
